This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention that is recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A wide variety of electronic devices are capable of entering one or more states where many nonessential functions are shut down in order to preserve the life of a device's battery. These states are referred to with a variety of titles, including a standby state, a dormant state, a hibernation state, a power-save state, and others. Because all batteries have a limited life before they must be recharged, it is especially important for devices to be capable of utilizing the battery life as efficiently as possible. This is particularly important on smaller mobile devices, which are forced to possess smaller-capacity batteries while still be expected to operate for prolonged periods of time. To accomplish this goal of prolonging battery life, devices will enter such “semi-active” states, for example, where there has been an extended period of inactivity (the term “semi-active” should not be construed as being limited to a single dormant mode, sleep mode, or other type of state where functions are reduced so as to save power). For example, devices can be set or pre-programmed to enter a dormant state if a user and/or any other devices do not call on the device to perform any actions for thirty minutes, an hour or some other time.
When a device is in such a dormant state, virtually all normal functions for the device are shut down, and the device must re-awaken before these actions can once again be undertaken. The re-awakening can occur via various methods, such as by having a user actuate a key on the device, or the device can automatically re-awaken after a set period of time.
Although the entering of such semi-active states indeed serves to more efficiently utilize a device's battery life, this benefit comes at a cost to the user and others who may wish to access the device. As mentioned above, when a host device is in such a dormant state, most normal activities are not possible. As a result, when another device wants to access information on the host device, such as files, email, applications, or just general data, it is unable to do so until the host device has been reawaken. This is quite undesirable from the perspective of the requesting device, as this inaccessibility can prevent it from performing a plethora of desired actions. It would therefore be desirable to provide a system that enables other devices to access information in the host device even though the host device is in such a dormant state.